The prisoners who will never be released

The following individuals are 14 of the 23 inmates in British jails who will never be released. (The prison service refuses to reveal the names of the other nine serving 'whole-life' tariffs.) Barrister John Upton argues that even these prisoners deserve some hope of freedom.

Hindley was sentenced to 25 years in 1966 for her part, with Brady, in the murders of Downey and Kilbride. She later confessed to killing Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, 10. Successive home secretaries have ruled that she will end her days in prison, despite a number of legal challenges by Hindley.

Malcolm Green Age: 53

Given a life sentence in 1971 for killing a prostitute, and released after 18 years. Five months later, in 1990, he killed, apparently without motive, a tourist from New Zealand whom he had befriended. He dismembered the body and dumped it, wrapped in plastic bags, at several spots along a road in South Wales. He was jailed again in 1991.

Archie HallAge: 78

Between 1977 and 1978 Hall killed the former MP Walter Scott-Elliott and his wife Dorothy, for whom he worked as a butler, two accomplices, who were also thought to be his lovers, and his half-brother. He is serving four life sentences, and is believed to be the oldest prisoner serving a "natural life" tariff. In 1995 he wrote to the Observer pleading for the right to die.

Ian BradyAge: 62

The Moors murderer was given two life sentences in 1966 for the murders of Lesley-Ann Downey, aged 10, John Kilbride, 12, and Edward Evans, 17. The body of 16-year-old Pauline Reade, another victim, was discovered on Saddleworth moor in 1987. Brady has spent more than a year on hunger strike demanding the right to die; judges ruled last year that authorities at Ashworth special hospital were right to force feed him to keep him alive.

John HiltonAge: 71

Hilton served a life sentence for murdering a man during a robbery at a south London shop in 1962. A month after his release on licence in 1978, he shot a diamond jeweller in the back during another robbery, and also accidentally shot his accomplice, who bled to death. He later confessed to the killings while in custody for another armed robbery.

Jeremy BamberAge: 39

Given five life sentences in 1986 for shooting his adoptive parents, his sister and her twin sons in order to land a £500,000 inheritance. In 1995 he lost an appeal against the then home secretary Douglas Hurd's ruling that he should never be released. Earlier this month, it was announced that the criminal cases review commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, will review his case.

John DuffyAge: 41

The so-called "railway killer" was given seven life terms in 1988 for two murders and three rapes between 1975 and 1986. He gained his nickname after stalking his victims to remote train stations before attacking them. In 1999 he admitted a further 17 sex offences.

Dennis NilsenAge: 54

The civil servant was jailed for life in 1983 for six murders and two attempted murders, having killed and dismembered 15 gay men. He picked up rent boys and homeless men at gay clubs in Soho, strangling them and keeping the bodies in his bedroom, sometimes sketching them or having sex with the corpses. He was caught when the drains at his north London house became blocked with body parts.

Victor MillerAge: 45

A computer operator, he indecently assaulted and murdered a 14-year-old boy after abducting him on his paper round in Hagley, Worcestershire, in 1988. Police believe he may have carried out 28 further sexual assaults; it was after being arrested for another attack that Miller led police to the boy's battered body, hidden under a pile of leaves. The court heard that he preyed on paper boys because they were particularly vulnerable. Has asked to remain in prison for the rest of his life.

Rosemary WestAge: 46

Given 10 life sentences in November 1995 for helping her husband Fred rape, torture and kill young women at their home in Gloucester. He had admitted to 12 murders, but hanged himself in prison while awaiting trial. Among the victims were West's daughter, Heather, her stepdaughter Charmaine, and a lodger pregnant by Fred West.

Arthur HutchinsonAge: 61

A petty criminal who also had a history of violence, Hutchinson gatecrashed a wedding reception at the home of a Sheffield solicitor in 1983. He stabbed to death the bride's mother, father and brother, before raping her sister at knifepoint. A palm print on a bottle of champagne helped lead police to him. He was jailed in 1984.

Victor CastigadorAge: 46

An illegal immigrant who came to Britain from the Philippines in 1985, Castigador was jailed for life in 1990 for murdering two Sri Lankan security guards during a robbery at a Soho amusement arcade where he himself worked. Along with two other men, he tied up the guards and the female cashier, doused them in white spirit and locked them in a wire cage in the basement before tossing in lit matches.

Colin IrelandAge: 46

The ex-soldier pleaded guilty in 1993 to torturing and murdering five gay men he picked up in a pub in Kensington, west London. Psychiatrists declared him sane at his trial at the Old Bailey, and Ireland admitted he was a sadist. The court heard that he had made a new year's resolution to become a murderer, and continued until he felt he would qualify as a serial killer.

Donald NeilsonAge: 60

Nicknamed the "black panther" because of his trademark balaclava, he shot dead three post office workers during robberies, and later kidnapped the 17-year-old heiress Lesley Whittle in an attempt to extort a ransom. Her body was later found in a drain in Staffordshire. Neilson was caught after two policemen spotted him acting suspiciously outside a pub in 1975.

These men and women have received mandatory life sentences. The home secretary has the power to release them on licence at any time. But he is under no obligation to do so. Neither is he under any obligation to refer their cases to, or accept recommendations from, the parole board, the body that advises on the release of prisoners. These men and women are serving "whole-life" tariffs. It has been decided - by politicians - that life, in each of their cases, really does mean life.

Even at this level, the whole-life tar iff seems remarkably unfair and open to abuse. It goes beyond the manipulation of approval ratings by vote-hungry governments, to the heart of our attitudes and the state of our nation. We exalt a number of this group of murderers as cultural icons and yet despise them intensely. We are faddish and jaded, and demand to be indulged. Michael Howard recognised this as an important aspect of the contract between the governing and the governed in our era when he introduced "acceptability to the public" as a criterion for release of life sentence prisoners.

In the 1960s, there was a brief flowering of policies concerned with the rehabilitation and reform of criminals, but these were terminated abruptly by the Thatcherite approach to law and order: they did it, now they pay. The Thatcherite market philosophy has also had an impact on the relationship between society and the way that murder is viewed. There has been a privatisation of the act - victims, relatives and murderers have become commodities. The members of the latter group are the most easily tradeable and their names trip off our tongue like those of pop stars or football players.

This objectification of murder has given rise to a pornography for which there is a seemingly unquenchable thirst. The ubiquitous "true crime" section in our bookshops, squeezed between the science fiction and horror shelves, is a testament to our overwhelming fascination with violence, sex and death.

The indefinite life sentence stands as a symbol of the ossification of our thought. As far as we are concerned, the murderers are fixed for ever at the moment in which they killed their victims.

Secretly (or not so secretly) we are relieved when the tabloids scream vengeance on our behalf. We allow ourselves to be convinced that we are not dealing with humans but with monsters. By weakly going along with this process, like proles attending an Orwellian Hate, we avoid ever having to consider the merit of each individual's development. Only by classifying them as faceless untermenschen can we justify this behaviour to ourselves.

It is by no means to belittle the victims of their crimes to recognise the dignity of a human being. In fact it is difficult to think of a more appropriate response in the face of the taking of life. It is not an insult to their memory to recognise the potential within people for genuine change. This, like murder, is a function of the human condition. It is also understandable that victims' relatives should feel anger and a desire for vengeance. That is why they should not be given responsibility for determining the fate of the wrongdoer.

It is not in dispute that those who are a danger to the public should be imprisoned; neither is the imposition of long prison sentences for serious crimes. What is wrong is the extinction of hope in those for whom it should still exist.

The whole-life tariff demonstrates our wilful refusal to look at the real person and willingness instead to scream at the hideous shadow that he casts on the wall behind him. This denial of justice is as serious in its own way as the taking of life. It is how we treat the vulnerable, including murderers, that demonstrates the respect we have for ourselves and our strength as a society.

The operation of this current sentencing practice is a tribute to the cynicism of our politicians and certain sections of the media. Their ability to create a climate of childlike, misinformed fear and emotional avarice is outstanding. We contribute to this state of affairs by devouring what we are offered without question.

The demonisation of these men and women puts them on a pedestal they do not deserve to occupy. It is not that they are inhuman; rather it is that they have exhibited all too human behaviour, albeit in its most destructive form. We should acknowledge this. For their sake and ours, they should not be accorded mythic status.